Prayer is the search for God, encounter with God, and going
beyond this encounter in communion. Thus it is an activity, a state and
also a situation; a situation both with respect to God and to the
created world... Prayer is born of the discovery that the world has
depths â€” that we are not only surrounded by visible things but that
we are also immersed in and penetrated by invisible things. And this
invisible world is both the presence of God, the supreme, sublime
reality, and our own deepest truth."

So states the
noted Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, who writes about prayer in a way that
shows how profoundly acquainted he is with the true conflicts and
aspirations that are at the root of man's spiritual being. For
Georgres LeFebvre, a Benedictine monk, prayer is being open to God's
mystery, but it is also our awareness that we are children of God: "Our
self-awareness is then bound to be a prayer... Prayer is being. It is
not something added on, it is being aware of what we are. It is and
remains our deepest truth even when we walk in darkness."The
discovery of prayer, of man's relationship with God and the world, of
faith and love, is what gives human beings hope and courage to pray.
This little book points to that discovery as a guide for those who wish
to end their isolation and enter into communion with the Infinite.